Report: Hawaii likely gone, WAC back on implosion alert

Less than two days ago, Western Athletic Conference comissioner Karl Benson toured the Alamodome, telling a gathering of local dignitaries and business leaders that the entries of UTSA, Texas State and Denver in 2012 would coincide with the league’s 50th anniversary.

With three new schools to replinish its membership, he said, the Western would be around for another 50 years.

In little more than half a year, Benson has now seen his top four schools — Boise State, Fresno State, Nevada, Hawaii — defect, taking with them almost all the conference’s prestige and appeal. To be perfectly blunt, the Western is probably now the worst FBS conference in America, not only lacking any name schools, but any shred of stability.

The Sun Belt doesn’t have much, but it at least has the latter.

At this point, near midnight on Thursday, with the official press conference still about an hour away, the scenarios are wide-ranging.

Worst case: Unable to land new members, the WAC disbands.

Best case: The WAC will finally be free to pursue a future based on geographic sanity.

In that sense, losing Hawaii could be a blessing in disguise.

I had a conversation this week with a member of one of the WAC’s “original” six athletic departments who asserted that the other five schools would all be happy to see Hawaii go. This person backed down a bit after I mentioned Hawaii’s value as a name school and television draw. But the fact remains that the school’s isolation in the middle of the Pacific was a huge thorn in the side of most of the other schools, requiring lengthy and lucrative travel.

With that thorn removed, the WAC just might be able to lure schools like North Texas that had previously resisted its advances. Not exactly an exciting option. But with the league once again fighting for survival, in desperate need of at least one more football program and preferring as many as three, just about anybody’s going to look good.